New home construction starts in Vancouver fell in January compared with the previous month, in line with predictions, according to a report released February 9 by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
The Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) trend for new housing construction, which is a measure of a six-month moving average of seasonally adjusted annual rates, was 19,671 units in January compared with 20,019 units in December 2014.
“Housing starts trended lower in January 2015, compared with December 2014, as an increase in single-detached starts was offset by a decline in multiple-family construction,” said Carol Frketich, CMHC’s BC regional economist.
Housing starts in the Abbotsford-Mission CMA were trending at 412 units in January 2015, down from 470 units in December 2014.
Vancouver and Abbotsford-Mission’s drop in housing starts in January reflected a nationwide decline. New home construction starts across Canada were trending at 188,956 units in January compared with 191,627 in December.
"The trend in total housing starts has been moderating since September 2014, reflecting lower trends in both multiple and single-detached starts,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC’s chief economist. “Overall, economic and demographic factors remain supportive of housing demand. The moderation in new home construction reflects inventory management by builders and is in line with CMHC’s expectations.”
CMHC said it uses six-month moving averages to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of the state of the housing market. In some situations, said the CMHC, analyzing only the monthly seasonally adjusted data can be misleading in some markets, as they can be variable from one month to the next.
The news comes after the CMHC’s recently released forecast for housing starts in BC for 2015-16, which predicted that new home construction will ease off over the next two years.
